What Makes a House a Home

This is a guest post by our friend Destin Wells of Arrows of Content

When my husband and I got married we didn’t have two dimes to rub together. Furnishing a house meant going to thrift stores and clearance shopping. As a young wife, I didn’t understand what actually made a house a home.

The internet is flooded with beautiful images of decorative pillows, the perfect paint colors, and white kitchens. If you open magazines there are pictures of perfectly put-together houses I’d be too scared to let my children walk into. I use to confuse the word house and the word home, when they are two completely different things.

Over the years I have learned what makes a house a home. It isn’t multiple TVs or the latest and greatest gadgets. It isn’t a spotless house that doesn’t look lived in. It isn’t the curb appeal yards out front, expensive china on display, or beautiful artwork on the walls.

What makes a house a home is you. Your family living together, eating together, being together – doing more than just sleeping at night in this house.

A home is where family comes together, prays together, and lives together. Not just sharing the same roof, but sharing conversations, experiences, and laughter.

Life is busy and full of day-to-day stress; your home shouldn’t be. A home should be a haven, and you should feel relief when you walk through the front door.

In this season of our lives, my husband works 12-16 hour days and his only off day is Sunday. This is out of our control, so we always make the best of it. When it’s cold outside, a fire is built in the fireplace. If the TV is on, it’s because we are all snuggled up on the thrift store loveseat, under a blanket, watching a movie together. Sundays are days when I put away “quick and easy” recipes, and bring out slow cooked pot roasts, chicken pot pies, and comforting meatloaf. We talk about schoolwork, play with the cat, jump in the leaves, and live together.

Every other day it’s just me and the kids at home until bedtime, so Sundays are really special around here. However, every day we choose make our house a home. Since we’re lucky enough to be a homeschooling family, we sit down and share every meal together. We work together, play together, and clean up together. Everyone has a different lifestyle and might not be home all day long like we are, and that’s okay. Our home doesn’t have to look like your home. Our family time doesn’t have to look like your family time.

But one thing is the same no matter what lifestyle you lead – what makes your house a home is simply you. Your family being together is what makes it special. Don’t just be physically there, be mentally there also. Start a conversation, share a blanket, tell some jokes – have family time together, and have family time in your home.

You can be the richest person in the world and not have a dime to your name. Money can buy a house, but only you can make it a home.

Homemaking

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This is a guest post by our friend Destin Wells of Arrows of Content